1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a monitoring system, a method for monitoring an object entering a room, and a computer readable storage medium therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, to manage entry and prevent a crime, utilization of a monitoring camera, authentication using features of a living body to identify an individual (e.g., biometric authentication), authentication by an integrated circuit (IC) card (e.g., IC card authentication) or the like, has been proposed and used.
As an example of an entry monitoring system that executes entry monitoring using an authentication apparatus for executing biometric authentication, IC card authentication, or the like, in conjunction with a monitoring camera for monitoring an action after entry, the following technique is discussed.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-222773 discusses a system that executes door opening control by an authentication apparatus, and after the execution of the opening control, an operation of a camera is started to execute a tracking operation.
In the above-described conventional system, it may be the case that a monitoring camera inside a room may not be in a position that enables capturing of a person entering a room when a door is opened. In such a situation, it may be difficult to satisfactorily track the person from the moment when the person has passed through the door. Thus, it can occur that the sight of the person may be lost.
For example, in the system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-222773, a tracking camera is activated when the door is unlocked. However, depending on a capturing range and operating position of the camera, a time lag may occur before the person entering the room is tracked. Thus, an object to be monitored may be lost after entry.
For example, in the conventional entry monitoring system, it can be difficult to accurately start monitoring of an object to be monitored (e.g., a photographic object) by a monitoring camera (e.g., an image capturing apparatus) from the moment when the object to be monitored has entered. Accordingly, it can occur that the object to be monitored may be lost.